They went to their room but CCTV showed her “flee” down the corridor and Dobie drag her back.

When staff asked them to leave Dobie followed Miss Hughes, approached from behind and “headbutted her to the side of the face”.

However, they later met up again and booked a room at the Novotel in Hanover Street.

Miss Hughes said he had calmed down but then “his mood changed” as he referred to a message he saw on her phone.

Mr Blasbery said: “He started punching her with both fists to the head and body, pulled her by the hair around the room and kicked her to the ribs and back.

“He put both his hands around her neck resulting in her nearly passing out.”

Dobie smashed a glass and tried to cut his arms and when Miss Hughes attempted to stop him, he punched her in the head.

She tried to hide in a toilet but he punched and kicked her and, when she escaped, he pulled her back to the room by the hair.

The Novotel, Hanover Street, Liverpool.

Another guest intervened and police were called after Miss Hughes managed to run away.

Mr Blasbery said: “She can be seen running down the corridor on CCTV, with blood running down her face.”

She suffered bruising to her face and arms, soreness to her ribs and back, and said her bottom row of teeth “shifted a little leaving a gap”.

Miss Hughes told the court: “I trusted him and he ended up doing this to me. I want to ask: why?”

Dobie admitted two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm. He has a previous caution for assault.

Stephen Polsen, defending, said his client “served at the sharp end” in Afghanistan.

He said Dobie’s caution was for drunkenly punching a taxi driver in the face while serving at army barracks.

Mr Polsen said: “He’s not a man of violence. He’s a man of trauma at the moment.”

He added that Dobie’s victim told police: “I want Bernard to get help with his problems.”

Recorder Simon Medland, QC, said perhaps there was a psychological “hangover” from Dobie’s time in the Army and that he was hospitalised in December 2015.

The Nadler hotel, Liverpool

He said: “Highlighted in the pre-sentence report is the service which you performed in the Brigade of Guards in Afghanistan in 2010.

“You were in zone one and on account of your experiences there, and I dare say on account of the fact you have drunk too much and taken unlawful drugs as well, you have suffered mental health problems.”

Recorder Medland said Dobie was “disgusted in himself” and mental health support would be “of more constructive benefit to society as a whole” than prison.

He handed Dobie 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, plus 200 hours of unpaid work.